Every year I have the opportunity to go to The Chicago Art Institute with my Art Club students. It is always amazing and inspiring. This year, instead of taking a lot of pictures of entire paintings, I focused on details.
Images
Brown County
If rural landscapes is your thang, you will be blown away by the wonderful selection at the Brown County Art Gallery in Nashville, Indiana. Somehow I’d never been before today and I would highly recommend it. They also had a really well curated show of Indiana printmakers on display.
From Sketch to Gouache
I had wanted to paint something small every week of my summer break…but of course I failed miserably. Oh well, here is a nice gouache I did on top of a quick ink sketch.
Church Sketching
I like to draw in church:)
Sketching
If you don’t have time for anything else…sketch!
More Weekly Painting (gotta get the mojo back)
I haven’t posted one of these in awhile. In fact, I’ve gotten pretty far behind on my weekly painting challenge (and honestly, pretty far behind in life in general). It’s time to break through this creative block and get the mojo flowing again. Here’s one I did today that was a lot of fun. It’s gouache, water-soluble colored pencil, and ink, and it depicts the exciting night life on my street after the kids go to bed. I hope to post a few more of these soon as I get back into the groove, as well as get you caught up on the artists I’ve recently fallen in love with; but for now, I’ll leave you with this watercolor study.
Concentration
I’m not trying to look tough. This is actually what my face looks like when I’m concentrating. I painted this during my Painting II class today since we are attempting self-portraits (40 minutes).
A Touch of Warmth
There was a nice bit of sun hitting a small portion of the neighbor’s house Thursday. The trees were illuminated.
gouache, watercolor pencils, ink
5×7
Weekly Painter 2017_January-February
One of my goals for 2017 was to paint more. It’s often intimidating to get out my easel and a “precious” canvas and jump into a big project that I know will keep me preoccupied from my family for the next week (which is my normal experience). In other words, it doesn’t fit conveniently in my normal life.
So, I followed the design of James Gurney and created my own light and portable pochade easel.
Since then I’ve been trying to paint at least one small 5×7 gouache every week. I’ll try to post some more as I go, but below is a selection:
Week One: The Back Alley
Week Three: For Sale
Week Five: Dreams
Week Six: Appliances
Week Seven: Could this be Spring?
Week Eight: Winter Field
“The Pilgrim” Character Concept
Yesterday I posted an environment concept I painted. When I posted it on facebook I asked my friends what story they saw in the piece. A close friend and fellow artist Annie Lightsey suggested the following:
“[He] has embarked upon a pilgrimage that will take him far from home. Reverently and with gratitude he turns and looks, one last time, upon the opulent comforts of the home he leaves behind before he proceeds on his journey.”
I’m considering going on this journey with The Pilgrim, so I decided to do a character concept of him today.